Green Party politicians in the South West are calling on the Prime Minister to replace the Environment Secretary, citing Defra's mishandling of flooding in Somerset as the latest in a "string of failures" over which incumbent secretary Owen Paterson has presided.  

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Professor Molly Scott-Cato, leading Green Party MEP candidate for the South West region, which continues to bear the brunt of extreme weather, accused Mr Paterson of "gross incompetence" on Wednesday (5^th February) and said the Defra Secretary's handling of the region's flooding is the "final straw." 

Prof Scott-Cato said Defra under Mr Paterson had failed in its remit to "improve the environment and safeguard animal and plant health." South West Greens claim a catalogue of failures in office, from the "inept" management of the badger cull to displaying "incredible complacency" over climate change, mean the Environment Secretary ought to be replaced "with somebody who truly understands the Environment Secretary brief."

Although the revelation this week that Prime Minister David Cameron will assume control of COBRA emergency meetings has the potential to increase scrutiny and speculation around Paterson's position, this isn't the first time his office has been challenged.

In October, after Mr Paterson broke news in Parliament that the Somerset badger cull had failed to meet its targets, Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman called for his resignation, arguing that he had mismanaged a "morally reprehensible" cull. Sheernan accused Defra under Paterson of being "ineffective, inefficient [and] ignoring scientific opinion."

That same month, Natalie Bennett, national leader of the Green Party, called on David Cameron to replace Paterson over the latter's response to the UN IPCC climate report, in which he played down the threats posed by climate change, claimed it could bring some advantages for the UK and apparently misunderstood significant issues raised in the paper. Bennett said the Defra secretary's views were, "astonishingly ignorant and extremely dangerous - especially for a man who has direct influence over the future of energy production, and therefore indirectly on the future of climate change."

Also reacting to Mr Paterson's comments on the IPCC report, Professor Kevin Anderson, Deputy Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said "His view that we can muddle through climate change is a colonial, arrogant, rich person's view… Many people will die in the developing world where the changes will be felt the most and it is irresponsible and immoral to suggest that we as a species can adapt to climate change."

Prof Anderson is also a vehement opponent of the current government's energy policy, including ministers' intentions to press ahead with shale gas exploration, which the current environment secretary recently said he wanted to see taking place "all over rural parts of the UK".

The Professor added, "What are we doing in the UK to help reverse [our] reckless growth in emissions? Record levels of investment in North Sea oil, tax breaks for shale gas, investment in oil from tar sands and companies preparing to drill beneath the Arctic. Against this backdrop, the UK Treasury is pushing for over 30 new gas power stations, whilst the government supports further airport expansion and has dropped its 2030 decarbonisation target."

This week it was revealed that Defra spending on climate change adaptation initiatives fell 41 percent over the last financial year, to just £17.2 million.

Commenting on Wednesday, South-West Greens' Prof Scott-Cato, said, "Paterson seems to have no idea what the environment means or what it means to be the minister for it. People may view his comments about badgers 'moving goalposts' or anti-fracking campaigners winning the arguments because of their 'exciting clothes and banners' as the lines of a stand-up comic. Well, perhaps he would do better as a comedian than Environment Secretary because these issues are far from a laughing matter." 

The Professor continued, "Rather than protecting the natural world he only visits the countryside to look for opportunities to exploit and profit from it. Since he is unconvinced by the science behind climate change he is unlikely to be the right person to develop policies to address this most significant problem we face; climate change goes to the heart of the flood problems afflicting communities living in the Somerset Levels."

A Defra spokesperson said the Prime Minister chaired Wednesday's Cobra meetings as is his prerogative "if he feels it is necessary to do so." The Defra spokesperson assured that the PM's decision to take control of Cobra and earlier announcement that a controversial dredging strategy would go ahead in Somerset last week, both of which were within the Environment Secretary's remit, are not cases of him overriding Mr Paterson.  

Ten Downing Street was unavailable for comment.